2 No Way

HIGH SCHOOL was ... different. I don’t know why. It was mostly the same kids we’d been in school with since fifth grade, but last year we were the oldest kids in school and this year we were the youngest. And some senior dude I didn’t even know asked me out on a date. Oh no way, José. Troll.

On the other hand, we did hang out a lot with our friends at school. Aubrey Diaz, Forrest Knight, and Shelby Morris ate lunch with us in the cafeteria. We studied. We did chores. We rode when we could, but as winter set in that was pretty limited. We fought with the brats over who got to watch what on TV. And gave up. Kyle and I spent more time on our computers and sometimes late at night we even messaged each other across the hall.

My birthday came with the annual hunting trip. Kyle got a nice white-tail buck. I kinda gave him the shot. If he’d have missed, I’d have had my first big boy. But Kyle’s just as good a shot as I am. Sitting around the campfire, Pa gave me the birthday lecture on what a great man Kennedy was and that I was born on the anniversary of his death. Even Mom Mar rolled her eyes at hearing the story again.

“Let me tell you that when Cole and Ashley came into the house that afternoon and found me straining away upstairs, there wasn’t a thought about any dead presidents,” she said. “They were all business getting me into the tub. You came sliding out before the midwife even got there.”

“I’ve never forgiven Mary Beth for such an easy birth when Kyle took twenty-three hours of moaning and pushing before he deigned to enter the world,” Mom Ash said. “Don’t you forget, boy. Twenty-three hours of pain I endured to give you your start.”

“Yes, Mom Ash,” Kyle said contritely. We all giggled.

“Oh yuck!” Phile chimed in.

“You hush, boy,” Mom Mar said. “You balanced the scale when they had to use a can opener to get your big butt out of me. For a month after the C-section, I couldn’t even pick you up because you were too heavy.”

“Was I a hard delivery, Mom Ash?” Caitlin asked innocently.

“No honey. You didn’t start being a pain until you were about eight.”

Kyle turned fifteen in May of our freshman year and my world fell apart. Moms and Pa told him he could move out of Phile’s room and stay in the bunkhouse.

Back when we had a bunch of summer cowboys, the bunkhouse was just a couple big rooms with bunks, a locker room, shower, and toilet. But needs change over time and our two full-timers had wives and one had a kid. Pa had the bunkhouse remodeled into apartments. They weren’t big, but there were two little efficiencies, a two-bedroom, and a one-bedroom apartment. And Kyle was getting his own.

“Mom Mar, it’s not fair. I’m older than him. Why don’t I have my own apartment? I’d even keep it clean. You know what his apartment’s going to look like in a couple weeks? You’ll have to tear down the bunkhouse and decontaminate the place. Mo-om!”

“Ramie, you hush. Have some consideration for your brother. How would you feel if you had to room with Phile?”

“Why not send Phile out there?”

“You know he’s too little. Besides,” Mom Mar dropped her voice, “who would trust that little monster on his own?” We both giggled about that, but I still wasn’t happy.

I didn’t begrudge Kyle his own space. I had a room of my own and it wasn’t his fault there were only three kids’ rooms. When it came down to it, though, I missed him. He only came into the house for breakfast and dinner. I ended up studying alone and picking at the brats. I got pretty pissy with Kyle, too. Half the time he didn’t even answer my messages.

The last day of school, he headed for his apartment and I headed for the barn. I threw my backpack in a corner, saddled Pooky, and in ten minutes I was riding down toward the river. We weren’t supposed to go out alone, but I didn’t care. I didn’t have any friends and Kyle probably wouldn’t poke his head out until a Mom called us for dinner. Maybe I’d be in Albany by then. Who’d even care?

I just barely got to the river and started to skirt the watering hole when I ran out of steam. I was feeling so damned sorry for myself.

“You’re lucky, Pooky. Life is just one big long buffet table for you. You get brushed and fed. And I love you.” I hugged his neck and let the tears come. Must be getting to my time of month.

I wandered down by the water and looked up the hill. An old raven was pecking at something dead in the grass. When I looked his way he eyed me, but never moved from his meal. He had to turn his head to look at me because one eye was all cloudy.

“What do you want, old Blackfeather?” I demanded. “You’re always sneaking around and never saying nothing. Go away.” I plopped myself down and looked at the sky through my tears. Guess I was tired, ‘cause I drifted off to sleep.

I came around slow-like. The sun was just starting down behind the mountain. It wouldn’t be dark for a while yet, but the mountains kind of cut the amount of sunshine in the afternoon. I glanced over to where Pooky was still ground-tied with Dado.

Dado?

I looked around and right behind me, Kyle was sitting, whittling a stick with his pocketknife. He grinned at me.

“Must be easier places to nap than out here,” he said.

“What are you doing out here?” I snapped.

“Ramie, I know we ain’t been gettin’ along all that good lately, but I still got your back. I saw you take off like a bat outa hell and I just figured I’d better get saddled and ride.”

“You really got my back, Kyle? Still?”

“Like always. I’m sorry I ain’t been friendly since I got throwed out of the house. I thought maybe you were mad at me, too,” he said.

“Kyle! Nobody’s mad at you! What do you mean throwed out?”

“I’m just like a hired hand now. Bet Pa sends me to the upper pasture with the cows all summer. I don’t know what I did. Did I hurt you, Ramie?”

“Kyle! No! I miss you. I thought you hated us all. I was so jealous of you.” I scrambled up on my knees and threw myself at my brother to hug him. I missed his pocketknife, thankfully. “I’m sorry, Kyle. How could you think you were thrown out?”